254 robinson crusoe.ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/uf/00/02/62/10/00001/00274.pdf254 robinson crusoe.came...

254 ROBINSON CRUSOE.

came from little at first; and though he knew not that I had theleast design of giving him anything, he sent me on board a present offresh provisions, wine, and sweetmeats, worth above thirty moidores,including some tobacco, and three or four fine medals in gold : butI was even with him in my present, which, as I have said, consistedof fine broadcloth, English stuffs, lace, and fine holland. Also, Idelivered him about the value of one hundred pounds sterling, in thesame goods, for other uses ; and I obliged him to set up the sloop,which I had brought with me from England, as I have said, for theuse of my colony, in order to send the refreshments I intended to myplantation.

Accordingly, he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very fewdays, for she was already framed ; and I gave the master of her suchinstructions that he could not miss the place ; nor did he, as I hadan account from my partner afterwards. I got him soon loadedwith the small cargo I sent them ; and one of our seamen, that hadbeen on shore with me there, offered to go with the sloop and settlethere, upon my letter to the governor Spaniard to allot him a suffi-cient quantity of land for a plantation, and on my giving him someclothes and tools for his planting work, which he said he understood,having been an old planter at Maryland, and a bucaneer into thebargain. I encouraged the fellow by granting all he desired ; and,as an addition, I gave him the savage whom we had taken prisonerof war, to be his slave, and ordered the governor Spaniard to givehim his share of everything he wanted with the rest.

I have now done with the island, and all manner of discourseabout it: and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums would dowell to turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read of thefollies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much less bythose of other men, to beware; not cooled by almost forty years'miseries and disappointments-not satisfied with prosperity beyondexpectation, nor made cautious by afflictions and distress beyondimitation.

From the Brazils we made directly over the Atlantic Sea to theCape of Good Hope, and had a tolerably good voyage, our coursegenerally south-east, now and then a storm, and some contrarywinds : but my disasters at sea were at an end-my future rubs andcross events were to befall me on shore, that it might appear theland was as well prepared to be our scourge as the sea.

Our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board,who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the Cape, onlybeing limited to a certain number of days for stay, by charter-party,at the several ports she was to go to. We stayed at the Cape no